Christopher Pickard is stepping down as chairman of the Latin American Travel Association.
He has been chairman of the organisation for two years and has served on its executive committee for 14 years.
Pickard will step down after the new Lata executive committee, which will be elected at the association’s AGM on May 19, meets and selects a new chairman and officers.
Pickard, who lived and worked in Brazil for 20 years, steps down at a time when the association is registering record membership levels and revenues, and on the eve of Experience Latin America, a new trade show being launched by Lata on June 16.
He said he felt he could step down now because Lata is in such good shape, and because he accepted that he needed to commit more time to other projects.
A film he developed and co-produced, “Rio 50 Degrees”, directed by Julien Temple, will air shortly on the BBC, while his websites braziltheguide.com and worldcuptheguide.com have proved popular with travellers heading to Brazil for the World Cup this summer.
Pickard said: “Happily we don’t have any conscious uncoupling to do as I will still be around and the new chairman and officers can call on me at anytime if I can be of assistance to Lata or the membership. I will still be a member, if they will have me, and a trustee of the Lata Foundation.”